Academia has never been a way to make a lot of money, but, until ~1975 (https://jakeseliger.com/2010/01/21/problems-in-the-academy-louis-menands-the-marketplace

Academia has never been a way to make a lot of money, but, until ~1975 (https://jakeseliger.com/2010/01/21/problems-in-the-academy-louis-menands-the-marketplace-of-ideas-reform-and-resistance-in-the-american-university-2/ https://jakeseliger.com/2010/01/21/problems-in-the-academy-l...), one could reasonably expect to eventually attain a reasonable material quality of life while pursuing ideas, the life of the mind, and so on. It could be reasonable to sacrifice 5+ years with the expectation that one would get that reasonable material quality of life after, while advancing human knowledge, etc. The problem is that today the more likely outcome (there are exceptions, some of them posting in this thread) is that one has wasted 5+ years in, at best, advancing someone else's career. "I love research" is too often a way for institutions and professors to exploit the young.